Karsten Strauss

Planned Parenthood won breathing room Wednesday when the Senate rejected the House Republican spending bill that would have defunded the family-planning organization. But ongoing congressional spending negotiations remain perilous.

A bill to help curb child marriage in foreign countries passed the Senate unanimously in December but ran afoul of House GOP members. U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum plans to try again, with a vote that could come by May.

Bangladesh is singled out from neighboring India and Cambodia for taking stronger measures to stop acid attacks on women in a report released Thursday. The attacks to disfigure and isolate victims are called acts of gender terrorism.

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It is being hailed as the most progressive state policy so far, going further than New Jersey, California and Rhode Island in various respects. But its showcase potential won’t be tested until the program gets going in 2018.